Gun control group pushing boycott of Starbucks

There aren’t many businesses that allow patrons to carry a gun into their establishments, But as counterintuitive as it may sound, given support for President Barack Obama, Starbucks respects the Second Amendment, allowing customers to carry if state law permits.

That’s not sitting well with one gun control group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which is organizing a nationwide boycott this Saturday against Starbucks and collecting signatures in hopes that the coffee chain will ban guns from stores:

An advocacy group has called for “Skip Starbucks Saturday” this weekend — a nationwide boycott on Aug. 24, to pressure the coffee giant to amend its current policy, which allows customers to carry loaded guns into Starbucks stores where permitted by state law.

“Many moms are unaware that if they take their children to Starbucks, their children may be standing next to a customer who has a loaded weapon,” says Shannon Watts, founder of the non-profit group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. She says the group hopes to gather 25,000 signatures to ban guns at all U.S. Starbucks stores. She hopes to personally present the signatures to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

Starbucks isn’t backing down from its position, meaning they’ll continue to allow customers to carry guns in stores in states or localities that respect the Second Amendment. The coffee chain did recently close stores in Newtown, Connecticut, where a mentally unstable person killed 26 people at an elementary school in December, to avoid playing a role in local gun rights’ rally.

If you’re interested in combating this boycott on Saturday, you can use this handy tool to find a Starbucks location near you. This author, who admittedly has a coffee addiction, will be dropping by his local Starbucks for his daily fix.